I wonder about what I’ve seen in Prophecy. Though people may know me as a skeptic, the truth is that I do wonder, and I do doubt my point of view. Are there gods out there? Of that I used to be sure the answer to be false. But lately it seems with the revelations I’ve stumbled upon; I may need to reexamine how I approach these topics.

-From Professor Shokolov’s Journal, 31st Entry

An alarm shouted into the room AxEl was in. The beeping noise enveloped him so much he could barely think of anything but turning the noise from the device beside him off. He slammed his hands a fair few times in on his phone, but eventually sobered up enough to recognize that the alarm had come from a call, and the call had come from Anagen.

“Hu…yeah?” he asked.

“Sorry to wake you so early, AxEl. We’ve some work to deal with here, however, so it’d be appreciated if you were here,” Anagen replied.

He talked with her as he freshened up. Changing out of his clothes, washing his face, eating breakfast, he did it all and left in his car as soon as he could.

AxEl took the highway so that he could arrive sooner rather than later. His car sped by and AxEl enjoyed the steady purr of the engine within it. Other cars passed him by, but AxEl ignored them.

Buggies, trucks, vans… but then he realized that there was something wrong with those. He looked in his rear-view mirror and found that there was another similarly black van tailing him from behind. There was also a black van on his side. AxEl tried to signal that he wanted to turn, but the vans didn’t budge from their location.

AxEl looked to his side to see what the driver’s problem was, and saw the barrel of a rifle pointing back at him from the other car. AxEl stomped on the breaks, stopping immediately and skidding. The loud screech lasted a second before the van at his back crashed into him and his car went spiralling.

Glass windows shattered and metal twangs accompanied the vehicle as it rolled over and over. AxEl felt whiplash a hundred times over until the vehicle finally came to a close. His chest hurt, his legs hurt and he felt a trickle go down his forehead.

AxEl looked out his windows and saw that his vehicle had been turned upside down. A glance at the cracked mirrors showed that the vans were still chasing his vehicle. Damnit, he thought to himself as he struggled with his seatbelt.

The vans that had been chasing AxEl stopped in front of him. No other cars were present on the highway, they’d made sure of that after AxEl had entered the road. Various men and women in black suits, holding rifles, pistols and daggers, approached the upturned vehicle.

Then the door flew out and hit the concrete edge of the highway. Without a second of hesitation, a person flew out of the car and slid across the pavement.

They fired on the grey eyed man, who had a knife brandished in his hand. But not a single bullet made it past. AxEl dashed behind his car and waited for the fire to die down as Phantoms flooded his mind.

He saw himself get shot and die a million times over. The Phantoms faded immediately after he died in each of them, which worried AxEl. I guess that means I can’t see past my own death.

He held the knife in his hand with perfect poise. Anagen had given him the lessons after it had turned out that he wasn’t the best shot. Two men with rifles rounded the corner from each side, and AxEl lunged at the closest one he could see on the left. He didn’t so much avoid the bullets than refuse to do the moves that he saw in the Phantoms that led to his demise.

He stabbed the first man through the side of his chest and used him as a shield, before shoving him towards a second person who he disarmed. He took the man’s rifle and fired wildly towards the right side of his car, where the men tried to take shelter.

He punched the disarmed man in the face, knocking him out. AxEl jumped onto his car and lunged from the top, kicking a woman in the face and sending her sprawling on the ground. He weaved left and right away from the bullets of another shooter, before taking his rifle and knocking him upside the head with it. AxEl saw a Phantom of his vision going out suddenly, and he moved away just as a bullet whizzed past his head.

Too close! He threw his dagger at the man to distract him. AxEl rushed him and choked him out as more men approached. They raised their weapons to him as the man in his arms struggled.

“What do you want from me? And who sent you?” AxEl shouted at them, but no one uttered a response. His meat shield eventually stopped struggling in his arms and gave way, making it all the more annoying carrying him.

AxEl then raised him up sideways and rushed the others. He tackled them with the man’s body and sent them to the ground. They tried to get leverage enough to shoot him, but AxEl stomped them out.

He may have been too brutal for the fact, as his soles were covered in blood by the time he stopped. Then it came, he felt a blow to his side and doubled over. AxEl looked up and saw no one in particular near him.

But his Phantoms caught the movement of something in his sight. Someone who was about go in for another blow. AxEl caught the after-image as it came and saw a man in his hands. He slammed the face of the man down onto the floor as two more people started spinning around him.

They’re trying to distract me. But the distractions proved fruitless as AxEl blocked each and every one of his hits. He saw one of them stop far away from him, but then he sped away again just as quickly. But in that moment, he saw the man taking a breath.

AxEl steeled himself on his spot. When one of them went in for a blow, he would block it, or weave around it the best he could. This continued for a few minutes, and eventually he began to see the men slow down significantly. The sound of a gun behind him warned him of something, and AxEl dropped to the ground. Behind him, one of the fast men was holding a rifle in his hands and had fired. He hadn’t expected the recoil, however, and looked worn by it. AxEl lunged at the man from the ground and grabbed at his legs. He grabbed onto the man, turning him right as a bullet was about to take AxEl. The man he was grappling took the bullet for him instead. AxEl let the man drop to the ground and grabbed the rifle near him.

He fired wildly as the man tried to dodge. But even speed had its limits against moving bullets. One of the shots caught the man in the leg and he skidded across the road before hitting concrete with a sickening crunch. AxEl winced, then dropped the rifle in his hand and took deep breaths. He looked at the carnage around him and wondered what had prompted him. But his thoughts faded just as he heard horns in the distance.

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An ambulance, and several police vehicles made their way to the spot on the highway. AxEl tried to hide the grey in his eyes, but he was glad that they had faded away on their own as soon as the paramedics approached. They rushed him at once into their vehicle and he was off to the hospital at once.

After being patched up, a hospital room greeted him where he was put with a few other people. They looked to be suffering from minor injuries, brandishing cuts that bled through their bandaged. An officer had taken his statement on the way in and AxEl had made sure to blemish his own part in the whole affair, painting it as a random attempt on his life. Is he even going to accept that? A whole group of armed men doesn’t really sing to my innocence.

But it seemed that he did, as the officer asked no more questions and simply left without another word.

A nurse walked up to him and dipped a cotton bud into some alcohol solution. She dabbed the cotton on his forehead and AxEl felt a sting. She discarded the cotton and pulled another one off the tray she had brought with her, continuing the process all over the cuts in his body.

He winced a fair few times, but eventually she was done and flashed him a slight smile before walking away. AxEl leaned back in the soft bed he was in and let out a sigh. He was texting Anagen about the whole affair when someone walked into his view. A man wearing a dark button up with rolled up sleeves, short cropped hair and looking straight at him from the entrance of the room.

He had striking amber eyes that stared directly at him, and AxEl instinctively looked to his sides to confirm if he was really the target. The man unfolded his arms and walked towards him, placing a hand on the bedrail.

“How are you holding up?” he asked in a raspy voice. Doesn’t much look like a nurse or doctor, he thought to himself.

“Pretty well. They didn’t hurt me that badly,” AxEl replied. The man in front of him chuckled.

“You’re lucky to have gotten out of that fight so unharmed,” he said, again with that raspy, almost whispering like voice of his. It itched at AxEl’s mind.

“It’s almost unbelievable in fact,” he added. “Tell me, how did you get through those men that were after you?”

A voice screamed in AxEl’s mind. GET OUT OF THERE! It shouted with such an intensity he was awe-struck. Was that his mind? But why? What about this man made him that scared? AxEl realized he had been blanking and stammered out a response. “I… It was really just unprecedented,” he said, annoyed by his tone.

The man scrutizined him with his gaze and AxEl grabbed onto the bedrail. “It’s not unprecedented for that kind of coincidence to happen, I suppose,” he said, and it finally clicked.

The raspy voice, he knew it. He knew it from the past, and he knew it in the future. AxEl’s blood boiled as he swiped to grab onto the man, but he was impossibly fast. A wolfish grin appeared on his face. AxEl lunged forward from his bed, creating a lot of noise and gaining the attention of everyone else in the room. But he had him, he had the man in his hand.

“Calm down there, AxEl. We wouldn’t want anyone to see, would we?” the man said. AxEl glanced at the room and saw that people were still staring at him. He didn’t want to let go, it would be the last thing he wanted, but this wasn’t where his prophecy had taken place. And Nook wasn’t here.

He let himself slowly ungrasp the man, but kept his eyes solely focused on him. The man smiled a wolfish grin towards AxEl, enflaming his anger once more.

“I haven’t told you my name yet, have I? I am HoonUl, and maybe you know me as the acting CEO of a certain… company,” he said, each word shivering out of his throat.

“No, I don’t. What do you want with me?” AxEl asked. HoonUl eyed him up and down.

“Those wounds you took must be aching, right? They shouldn’t even be letting any visitors inside who aren’t related, should they?”

“Talk faster.”

“But I’m in here somehow. And no one knows. I can get out with just the same amount of evidence left. No one would even notice if I pilfered something, talked to someone, or placed something inside. All the evidence would just…disappear,” he said with a flourish of his hand.

“And I hired those same men on the streets. I closed off the highway.”

“Is this supposed to scare me?” AxEl spat. For all of his feelings toward the man, fear wasn’t one of them.

“It is. You and your little operation should stay away from me. From my people, my workers. If you don’t, I won’t just go after you. I’ll go after your lovely mother, FenEl, too,” HoonUl replied, taking in the shocked expression AxEl bore on his face.

“She’s a simple thing isn’t she? Habitual, cyclic, fragile little woman that she is.”

AxEl’s hands clenched the rails so hard he felt as if he were about to crush the metal under his hands. Images flooded his head, images of him choking the life out of HoonUl, and when that didn’t work, of him beating the man over and over until his face was pulp and his cries deafened.

But he didn’t. His mother was in danger now, that much he knew. He’d have to post people, lots of people, just to make sure of her safety.

“Have I made my position and yours clear?” HoonUl asked, his eyes boring into AxEl.

AxEl nodded slowly and HoonUl smiled, taking his hands off of the railing and dusting his hands.

“Good. I hope your recovery’s swift then. Goodbye, AxEl,” he added, leaving the room through the same doorway he had entered. An hour or so after, two familiar figures came to visit AxEl.

Nook and Anagen hugged him and AxEl gave distracted replies to the various questions that they asked.

“We should go now. You won’t be safe here,” Anagen said, lifting him up from his bed.

“Am I even allowed to leave?” AxEl asked.

“Your wounds aren’t that deep,” Anagen said, then hauled him up. A sharp pain went through his legs and he winced.

“Yeah, not deep at all,” AxEl grunted.

“You can complain later,” Nook added, picking AxEl up from the other shoulder. After a few steps he could walk on his own, but it still felt wobbly to him.

“What I wouldn’t do for a Magic Bullet that could heal me,” AxEl joked. Anagen patted him on the back.

“That would have everyone addicted. Best we can do for now are some painkillers,” Anagen replied.

“Maybe you should think more about avoiding fights than needing some way of recovering from them,” Nook mocked.

The paperwork for getting out wasn’t as extensive as AxEl would have believed. The doctors had insisted on keeping him for much longer, but that would only leave him open for more assaults.

The three of them made it back to the slick car owned by Anagen that AxEl still didn’t know the name of. But he was becoming surer of its foreign nature now that he had a second glance. No one else in HuedoLupan had ever driven something like that, after all.

“Fancy model,” AxEl said innocently. Anagen smirked.

“Not one of yours,” Anagen replied. Not going to fess up, I guess.

They sat inside the car, Anagen scolding them for moving the seat too back, or touching some of the stuff she had placed in the vehicle.

“Don’t touch anything!” She chided them as she drove down the freeway. Buildings passed them by, a staple of the city. They cast long shadows over all of the roads, making it so that there was no one large patch of sun or darkness. They crisscrossed over each other.

Near the heart of the city, the traffic became congested and Anagen tapped slightly on the wheel of the car.

“What did he threaten you with?” she asked him.

“My mother. He’d said that he’d go after her,” AxEl told her. From the rearview mirror, he saw her scowl.

“It’s a dirty move to bring someone’s family into this,” Nook said.

“But we know now that he’s threatening someone. I’ll have someone sent over to Barksight immediately to take a look at it,” Anagen said. AxEl shook his head.

“I’m going myself.”

“Again?” Nook replied.

“Again. And this won’t be like Minahret. Ana, you said that there were people from the Company moving around the AnaHon mountains?” AxEl asked.

“Yes.”

“Then we’ll find them and see what they’re up to.” AxEl looked over at Nook, who looked outside at the scenery. Nook noticed his gaze and nodded.

“You want to go see the old place?” he whispered. Anagen seemed to be focused entirely on the road ahead of them.

“If you want to,” AxEl replied. Nook leaned back in his seat.

“Anagen’s good company. She’s never done wrong by us,” Nook pointed out, “She deserves to know,” he finished.